From Ostrich to Magpie: increasing business take-up of proven ideas and technologies

The CBI has set out to find new ways to tackle the striking
variation in productivity that exists between UK firms. The results are clear: the UK needs more ‘Magpie’ and fewer ‘Ostrich’ businesses.

Magpies have the skill and the will to find and adopt readily available technologies and management best practices proven to lift productivity and pay. Ostriches stick with what they know.

Tackling this ‘failure to adopt’ could help reduce inequality between firms’ productivity and between people’s pay, adding over £100bn to the economy.